UFZ floodplain biodiversity dataset

This dataset consists of long-term abundance data of three taxonomic groups: plants, molluscs (snails) and carabid beetles. Main goal of the data is to identify relationships between biodiversity and environmental variability, extreme events, and restoration means in floodplains. Sampling started in 1998 and is still ongoing, except for ground beetles. There was no sampling in 2000 & 2001. The data were collected in different times on five study sites along the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve (Saxony-Anhalt) on a total of 96 plots based on a stratified random design. Due to the homogeneity of the habitat type, data could possibly be pooled to get time-series of a region instead of sampling plots. On each plot, ground beetles were collected by pitfall traps and vegetation recored in 100m*m levees. Molluscs were samples with a "Stechrahmen". All data are abundances of species: number of individuals (animals) or cover (plants). Plant data are fully available during the whole study time, but mollusc and carabid data are not fully determined yet.